Nabila Sharma tells how she suffered years of abuse from an Imam at the mosque she attended as a child. The 36-year-old sales rep, from the Midlands, hopes her story will help to stop others from having to ‘suffer in silence’.

I WAS abused almost every day between the ages of seven and 11.

My abuser was the leader of my mosque, the Imam.

One day, he asked me to come to his room, as he lived at the mosque.

I found this strange, but he said I could read to him and get ahead with my prayers before the others arrived.

Inside his room, he began touching my face and stroking my hair, telling me what a pretty little girl I was.